No Man’s Land a series of paintings by Kate Milsom INTRODUCTION The ‘No Man’s Land’ Series by Kate Milsom

The idea behind this series is to celebrate remarkable people who have challenged gender stereotyping in order to live lives of adventure and professional discovery. The initial inspiration came from an article on Rose de Freycinet who joined her husband’s round-the-world scientific voyage illegally, dressed as a man. Thinking she might make a good subject for a painting, I discovered I could find only one small likeness of her. This led me to wonder how many other unconventional historical figures had been similarly neglected and, ultimately, to start working on this alternative gallery of portraits.

Unsurprisingly, the series features many women who have dressed as men to be able to pursue education or careers that would have been denied to them otherwise. Throughout history there are scores of women who have assumed male identities simply in order to survive financially. There are also literary women, such as Amy Dillwyn and Florence Dixie, who have used their own experiences to champion women’s rights.

The series includes portraits of both men and women for whom gender identity was at best irrelevant and at worst significantly limiting to their ideas of personal freedom and sexuality. All are united by their disregard for societal norms – for a variety of reasons and to a greater or lesser extent – and they dressed accordingly. For many of these advocates of freedom and equality, ‘doing’ was far more important than personal recognition or social acceptance, the antithesis to our current ‘selfie’ generation. Christina and the Crown Oil & mixed media on gesso board 51cm x 41cm (unframed size)

Christina, King of the Swedes, Goths and Vandals Christina and the Courtesan 1626 - 1689 (Reign: 1632 - 1654) Christina is celebrated as one Oil & mixed media on gesso board of the most educated women of the 1600’s. Intelligent yet also 51cm x 41cm (following pages left) strident and moody, she rejected the stereotypical behaviours expected from a female of her time and position. She outraged Ninon de Lenclos (1620 - 1705) was a French author, many by her extraordinary manners and habit of dressing in freethinker, and patron of the arts. She had a succession men’s clothing, and scandalised her court by first deciding not of notable and wealthy lovers including the Marquis de to marry and ultimately abdicating in 1654 in order to publicly Villarceaux. On ending their affair he reportedly fell into such worship as a Roman Catholic, at which point she moved to a fever that to console him Ninon cut off her hair and sent it to Rome. him, starting a vogue for bobbed hair. Her nonconformist views and lifestyle led to her imprisonment in the Madelonnettes Christina was the third daughter and only surviving child of Convent in 1656 at the behest of Anne of Austria. Not long her parents. Initially pronounced a boy at birth due to an after, however, she was visited by Christina, who was so abundance of dark hair and a strong, hoarse voice, her mother impressed by both her beauty and mental capacity, that she became deeply depressed when the mistake was corrected and wrote to Cardinal Mazarin and arranged for her release. would have little to do with her for the rest of her life. Christina and the Popes Her father King Gustavus Adolfus however, with his well-earned Oil & mixed media on gesso board reputation as a pragmatist, simply declared “She’ll be clever, 51cm x 41cm (following pages right) she has made fools of us all!”. For her first 6 years until his untimely death at The Battle of Lützen, Christina and her father At the age of 28, the “Minerva of the North” having converted shared a close relationship, in which, officially recognised as to Catholicism, relinquished her throne, and moved to Rome. his female heir, she was treated exactly the same as if she had The Pope described Christina as “a queen without a realm, been a son. She was thus educated as if she had been a Royal a Christian without faith, and a woman without shame.” Male, learning at least 8 languages and being described by one She became a leader of theatrical and musical life in Rome tutor as having “a bright intelligence... She is not at all like a and protected many artists, composers, and musicians. She female”. petitioned Pope Clement X to prohibit the custom of chasing Jews through the streets at carnival and issued a declaration Although called “Queen,” the official title she held as of her that Roman Jews were under her protection. Being the guest of coronation by the Riksdag in February 1633 was in fact King. 4 consecutive Popes, and a symbol of the Counter Reformation, she is one of only 4 women buried in the Vatican grotto.

François Timoléon de Choisy 1644 - 1724 Oil & mixed media on gesso board 34.5cm x 30cm

De Choisy was a French transvestite, abbé, and author. As delighted in fooling a troop of male admirers. Many young was the usual practice from the mid 16th century until the women of the day would call on him for fashion advice, early 20th century, young boys in the Western world were encouraged by their mothers. He enjoyed their company ‘unbreeched’ and wore gowns or dresses until an age that greatly, and at least one pregnancy was produced from these varied between two and eight. What was unusual however, visits. Eventually however his increasingly extravagant toilettes and has been attributed to a whim of his mother’s, was that and exhibitionist behaviour earned him a public rebuke and the young François continued to be dressed in female attire exile from Paris. throughout his adolescence. He visited Rome in 1676, and shortly afterwards a serious Her reasons might have been political, as proffering the young illness brought about a sudden conversion to religion. François as a playmate for her friend Anne of Austria’s son In 1685, in a rather ill-considered attempt to redeem his Philippe I Duc d’Orleans (known as little Monsieur) would no reputation, he accompanied the Chevalier de Chaumont on doubt further her own position at court. Queen Anne, referred a mission to Siam to try to convert the King to Catholicism. to Philippe as “my little girl” and encouraged him also to He was ordained priest, and received various ecclesiastical dress in feminine costume, because it was seen to reduce any preferments, but the mission itself was a dismal failure, both potential threat he may have posed to his older brother, King diplomatically and financially. Louis XIV. He wrote a number of historical and religious works, but is Extravagant ‘play-dates’ were arranged with Mme de Choisy most remembered for his gossipy ‘Memoires’, in which he using her son as a small instrument of courtly diplomacy. “I draws vivid portraits of his contemporaries and are filled with was dressed as a girl,” recounts Choisy, “every time that little fascinating details of court life at the time. The accounts of his Monsieur came to our house, and he came twice or thrice a adventures as a woman are credited as the first transvestite week. I had my ears pierced, and wore diamonds, patches, and diaries. all the little gewgaws to which one becomes easily used and which one parts with so hardly. Monsieur, who loved all that, showed me boundless friendship.”

As an adult, De Choisy took up male dress briefly whilst pursuing his studies, but soon went back to his preferred female clothing. He enjoyed a brief acting career in which he

Julie d’Aubigny - La Maupin 1670 - 1707 Oil & mixed media on gesso board 44.5cm x 32.5cm

Julie d’Aubigny (1670/1673–1707), better known as convent, and escaped. They were on the run for three months Mademoiselle Maupin or La Maupin, was a 17th century and Julie was sentenced to death in absentia by the parliament swords woman and opera singer. Her tumultuous career and in Provence under the name sieur de Maupin, as the judges flamboyant life were the subject of gossip and colourful stories couldn’t quite admit the possibility of one woman abducting in her own time, and inspired numerous portrayals afterwards. another – let alone from a convent.

Her father, Gaston d’Aubigny, was a secretary to the Comte The girl was returned to her family eventually, and Julie d’Armagnac, the Master of the Horse for King Louis XIV. An persuaded her old lover, d’Armagnac to arrange a pardon accomplished swordsman, he trained the court pages, and for her. There are a string of stories of her subsequent wild educated the young Julie alongside the boys. She dressed as a adventures and affairs with both men and women. boy and excelled at fencing from an early age. The household moved to the court to Versailles in 1682, and from then on she Through her liaison with Gabriel-Vincent Thévenard, himself spent much of her youth in the Great Stables (Grande Écurie). an opera singer, Julie was hired by the Paris Opéra in 1690. She sang for the court at Versailles on a number of occasions, and By the age of 14 she had become d’Armagnac’s mistress. In again performed in many of the Opéra’s major productions. 1687 he arranged for her to marry the timid sieur de Maupin She appeared for the last time in La Vénitienne by Michel de La before promptly dispatching him to the provinces and a Barre (1705). stimulating job in tax collection. Some accounts claim he was sent off the morning after the wedding. In 1703 she fell in love with Madame la Marquise de Florensac, the “most beautiful woman in France”. The two women lived, At around the same time D’Aubigny became involved with an according to one account, in perfect harmony for two years, assistant fencing master named Sérannes. Shortly afterwards until de Florensac died of a fever. he was accused of killing a man in an illegal duel, and the couple fled to , making a living by giving fencing Distraught by the death of her lover, La Maupin entered a exhibitions and singing in taverns. convent where she died at the age of 33, in the words of one biographer, “destroyed by an inclination to do evil in the sight She began her singing career with the Marseille Opéra, and of her God and a fixed intention not to”, after which, he claims, her early appearances on stage were admired, particularly by “her body was cast upon the rubbish heap” (Gilbert 1932). one young woman with whom she fell in love. The girl’s family quickly packed her off to a convent in Avignon. Julie followed, see Kelly Gardiner https://kellygardiner.com/fiction/books/ entering as a postulate. One night after an elderly nun died, the goddess/the-real-life-of-julie-daubigny/ pair stole the body, placed it in the girl’s cell and set fire to the

Mary Read 1685 - 1721 (this page) Ann Bonny 1702 - 1782(?) (facing page) Oil & mixed media on gesso board 35.5cm x 30cm

Mary Read was born in London and was passed off as a boy by her mother in order to collect child support from her dead half- brother’s grandparents. After a stint with the British military, she married a sailor and began living as a woman. Her husband died young, and the widow Read once again disguised herself as a man and joined the military. Upon leaving the service, she drifted into a pirate’s life, joining “Calico” Jack Rackham’s ship, where she later met Ann Bonny.

Irish-born Ann Bonny had married a brigand named James Bonny as a teenager and moved from her home in South Carolina to the Caribbean. Here she met and subsequently eloped with Rackham early in 1720 dressing as a man to enable her to join his crew.

In October 1720, when Anne was about eighteen years old, Rackham and his crew, including the two women, were attacked by a “King’s ship”. Most of Rackham’s pirates put up little resistance as many of them were too drunk to fight. However, Read and Bonny fought fiercely and managed to hold off Barnet’s troops for a short time. Read died in prison, possibly from childbirth complications. Bonny disappeared from court records. It is believed that her Rackham and his crew were taken to Jamaica, where they were parents may have bought her freedom, but there are no official sentenced to be hanged. According to Johnson, Bonny’s last documents on her fate. words to the imprisoned Rackham were: “Had you fought like a man, you need not have been hang’d like a dog.” Bonny and Read both won a stay of execution due to pregnancy (pleading their bellies).

Ladies who Circumnavigate Oil & mixed media on gesso board 61.5cm x 33cm

Jeanne Baré (or Baret) 1740 - 1803

Jeanne Baré 1740 - 1803 was a member of Louis Antoine Jeanne Baré is represented (right) with various discoveries de Bougainville’s expedition on the ships La Boudeuse and from the voyage; a flowering vine which they named Étoile in 1766 - 1769. Recognized as the first woman to have Bougainvillea after the ship’s commander Louis-Antoine, Comte completed a voyage of circumnavigation of the globe, she de Bougainville, Commerson’s dolphin - Cephalorhynchus enlisted as valet and assistant to the expedition’s naturalist, commersonii, Commerson’s leaf-nosed bat - Hipposideros Philibert Commerçon, (she had formerly been his house keeper commersoni and the extinct Mauritius owl (Mascarenotus and was most likely his lover) disguised as a man. According sauzieri), also called Commerson’s Owl. Commerçon did to Bougainville’s account, Baré was herself an expert botanist, name a discovery for Baré - the genus Baretia. Unfortunately, and with his intervention, she became the first woman known Commerson’s Baretia was never published, because it was to have received a state pension on account of her service found, on the specimen’s return to Paris, that the genus had to the advancement of knowledge, despite the illegality of previously been identified under another name. her voyage. Bougainville justified her presence thus... “She will be the only one of her sex to do this and I admire her determination. The Court will, I think, forgive her for these infractions to the ordinances. Her example will hardly be contagious. She is neither ugly nor pretty and is not yet 25.”

Rose de Freycinet 1794 - 1832

Some 50 years later, a newly wed Rose de Freycinet, too in Rose de Freycinet represented (left) with compass and love to bear the long separation of a three year scientific telescope sailed aboard the Uranie, In 1817, on a mission to voyage around the world, created a scandal in Paris when obtain observations, not only in geography and ethnology, but she disguised herself as a sailor and snuck on board a French in astronomy, terrestrial magnetism, and meteorology. During corvette, captained by her husband Louis. Abiding by protocol, the return voyage the ship was lost and the entire crew were Rose’s name and image were erased from the voyage’s official stranded on the Falkland Islands for three months. Supplies ran drawings and reports, however her letters and diaries detailing short and as they scavenged the desolate island for sustenance observations in the Pacific Islands and particularly of Sydney Rose noted in one diary entry “...seal flesh does not appeal to have since become the first written account by a woman of a the crew. Not surprisingly, for it tastes quite unpleasant.” circumnavigation of the globe.

James Barry 1789 - 1865 Oil & mixed media on gesso board 45.5cm x 37cm

Dr. James Miranda Steuart Barry (November 9, 1795 – 25 July Florence Nightingale. After Barry’s death Nightingale wrote 1865, born Margaret Ann Bulkley) was a military surgeon in the that: “I never had such a blackguard rating in all my life...I British Army, born in Ireland. Although Barry’s entire adult life should say that (Barry) was the most hardened creature I ever was lived as a man, Barry was named Margaret Ann Bulkley, at met.” birth and was known as female in childhood. Barry lived as a man in both public and private life, with Barry’s birth sex only Barry was outraged by unnecessary suffering, and his heavy- becoming known to the public and to military colleagues after handed approach often incited anger from officials; on death through autopsy. several occasions Barry was both arrested and demoted for the extremity of this behaviour. He held strict views about Barry was born to Jeremiah and Mary-Ann Bulkley, and nutrition, being completely vegetarian and teetotal, and, while christened Margaret Anne. His uncle James Barry, was the keeping most personal relationships distant, was very fond of celebrated Irish artist and professor of painting at London’s pets, particularly a beloved poodle named Psyche. Royal Academy. The family was educated and well-connected, but financially hard up. Barry’s interest in medicine was Barry never allowed anyone into the room while undressing, encouraged by the liberal-minded friends of the late James and instructed that in the event of his death, strict precautions Barry RA, and before travelling to Edinburgh to enroll as a be adopted to prevent any examination of his person. However medical student in 1809, Barry assumed a male identity, James the maid who laid the body out, disgruntled for not being paid, Barry, and remained known thus for the next 56 years. took her discovery that Barry was in her opinion biologically female to the press. On 2 July 1813, Barry successfully passed the examination of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He was After the matter was made public, many people claimed to commissioned as a Hospital Assistant in the British Army on 6 have “known it all along”. The British Army, seeking to suppress July 1813, achieving a promotion to Assistant Surgeon to the the story, sealed all records of Barry for the next 100 years. Forces, by December 1815.

He was subsequently posted to Cape Town, South Africa in 1816. Among other acheivements Barry performed one of the first known successful Caesarean sections in which both mother and child survived. By 1851, he had made the rank of Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals. On a visit to the Scutari Hospital, Crimea, an argument took place between Barry and

Amy Dillwyn 1845 - 1935 Oil & mixed media on gesso board 33cm x 30.5cm

Elizabeth Amy Dillwyn, born into a family of liberal and Quaker Amy Dillwyn represented (right) in 1892, dressed in a bright values, was a Welsh novelist, businesswoman, and social purple skirt, sporting a yellow rose in her belt and flowers in benefactor. She was one of the first female industrialists in her hat to attend the public funeral of her father, the eminent Britain. Liberal MP, Lewis Llewellyn Dillwyn. This was a bold and purposeful statement on her part where strict black mourning By her early 40’s she had already published five novels, where was the norm, and created a scandal in the national press. feminist concerns predominated through nonconformist Dillwyn was protesting against the Victorian cult of death, female protagonists, and themes of crusading social reform, whose conventions demanded elaborate funeral and mourning unrequited love, and criticism of the upper classes. Dillwyn also arrangements, and which plunged working-class families contributed anonymously to the Spectator during the 1880’s. into debt as they struggled to purchase all the trappings a “respectable” send-off required. Much to her amusement, her However, in 1892, her father, a Liberal MP, and the owner of nonconformity continued to be noted throughout her life, with the Dillwyn Spelter Works at Swansea, died, leaving the family newspaper headlines such as “Woman and the Cigar: A Literary estate entailed away and enormous personal debts. Undaunted Business Woman who Delights in the Weed”. Unperturbed by her sudden poverty and conventional views as to women in by public opinion as to ‘lady-like’ behaviour she led a trip to business, she took it upon herself to save the Spelter Works, Algeria at the age of 59, visiting mines and riding astride a safeguarding the livelihoods of over 200 employees, paying off donkey into the Atlas Mountains to secure supplies of calamine all her fathers debts and turning the company into profit in less for the Spelter Works. than ten years. She reluctantly sold her shares in 1905 knowing that it would ensure more security for the business than she alone could guarantee. Olive Talbot (1842 - 1894) represented (left) was a philanthropist who, among other good works, used her When the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies was inheritance to support building and restoration projects at formed at the turn of the century, Dillwyn joined as one of churches in Glamorgan. She was physically disabled and the earliest supporters in Wales. She commanded enormous confined with a spinal condition for much of her life. She was respect during her lifetime through her determination to also Dillwyn’s neighbour and friend to whom Amy bore a long- work for social justice and the public good. Her unorthodox term, but very probably unrequited, attachment. Dillwyn, who appearance in trilby hat and stout boots, her habitual smoking never married, her fiancé having died in 1864, referred to Olive of cigars and her lifestyle in general drew the attention of the in her diary entries as her “wife”. press throughout her life, with the Pall Mall Gazette naming her “one of the most remarkable women in Great Britain”. see research by Dr.Kirsti Bohata at swansea.ac.uk

Jane & Marcel Dieulafoy (1851 - 1916) & (1844 - 1920) Marcel and Jane (right), Jane & Marcel (opposite) Oil & mixed media on gesso board 60cm x 52cm each

Jane Dieulafoy (29 June 1851 – 25 May 1916) was a French archaeologist, explorer, novelist and journalist. She was the wife of Marcel-Auguste Dieulafoy. Together with her husband, she is known for her excavations at .

She married Marcel Dieulafoy in May 1870. That same year, the Franco-Prussian War began. Marcel volunteered, and was sent to the front. Jane accompanied him, wearing a soldier’s uniform and fighting by his side. The Dieulafoys first visited Persia in 1881, and would return twice after that. For her contributions to archaeology, the French government conferred upon her the title of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1886.

During her travels abroad, Jane Dieulafoy preferred to dress in men’s clothing and wear her hair short, because it was deliberately, saying “a [female] collaborator would have been difficult for a woman to travel freely in a Muslim country. She an annoyance.” She was opposed to the idea of divorce, kept dressing in men’s clothing when she came back in France. believing it degraded women. During the First World War, she This was against the law in France at the time, but when she petitioned to allow women a greater role in the military. She returned from the she received special “permission was a founding member of the jury of the prix Femina literary de travestissement” from the prefect of police. prize from 1904 until her death.

It is difficult to determine Jane’s motives for preferring men’s At the outbreak of World War One, Dieulafoy wanted to return clothing. She wrote, “I only do this to save time. I buy ready- to military service, despite being 70. He was sent to Rabat made suits and I can use the time saved this way to do more as a lieutenant colonel in the Engineering corps, , and Jane work” but, given that she includes many characters who cross- accompanied him. While in , her health began to dress in her fiction her motives appear to be more complex. decline. She contracted amoebic dysentery and was forced to return to France where she died in Pompertuzat in 1916. The Dieulafoy considered herself an equal to her husband, but childless couple left their home at 12, rue Chardin in Paris to was also fiercely loyal to him. She called herself Marcel’s the French Red Cross who continue to operate an office from collaborateur, using the masculine form of the word the building to this day.

Florence Dixie 1855 – 1905 Oil & mixed media on gesso board 33cm x 30.5cm

Lady Florence Dixie (née Douglas), was a Scottish traveller, war Scandal surrounded her in 1883 when an attack on her person correspondent, writer and feminist. She wrote an account of (supposedly by two ‘Fenian’ men dressed as women) was travelling ‘Across Patagonia’, ‘Land of Misfortune’ covering the brought into question. Beatrix Potter commented on it in her Zulu Wars, and many books which deal with feminist themes. journals thus “Some of the papers, this being a sceptical age and the lady a Tory, have tried to make out that the affair never Florence was an unconventional child whose early years, happened, but I think there are the strongest reasons and shaped by her close relationship with her twin brother, were evidence that it did....she must be a lively and extraordinary spent in a tumble of competitive physical activities. At only five person, much more like a man, strong headed, but brave and foot tall and wearing her hair short, she was noted for being sound hearted.” Queen Victoria at nearby Windsor Castle sent “fearless, dynamic and opinionated”. As an adult she advocated her ghillie John Brown to investigate. Sadly he caught a chill equality for the sexes in marriage and divorce, and proposed and died, causing the Queen to blame Florence for his demise. women should be able to wear the same clothes as men. In 1890, Dixie published a utopian novel, Gloriana, in which she In December 1878, Dixie and her husband led an expedition to rails against a patriarchal society “Nature has unmistakably Patagonia, chosen because supposedly few European men, and given to woman a greater brain power... Yet man deliberately no European women, had ever set foot there. She played an sets himself to stunt that...laying down the law that woman’s active role in the party, hunting game (including ostriches) for education shall be on a lower level... this procedure is arbitrary food. In her subsequent writing ‘Across Patagonia’, Dixie never and cruel....It has been the means of sending to their graves actually mentions her husband by name, presenting herself as unknown, unknelled, and unnamed, thousands of women the hero of the expedition. Generally considered to have had a whose high intellects have been wasted, and whose powers for happy marriage despite the reduced circumstances that ensued good have been paralysed and undeveloped.” from her husband’s drinking and gaming debts, the couple were reportedly referred to by contemporaries as “Sir Always A keen sports woman throughout her life, Dixie became and Lady Sometimes Tipsy”. President of the British Ladies’ Football Club in 1895. Despite enjoying blood sports in her youth, she later wrote passionately In 1879 she gained a commission as war correspondent for against hunting and became a committed vegetarian. The Morning Post to cover the Zulu Wars in South Africa, but arriving too late, she justified her visit by interviewing the Florence died of diphtheria aged 50. She is not totally defeated King Cetswayo. Impressed by his dignity she returned uncelebrated however for her name still graces the home to successfully campaign for his reinstatement. (disappointingly remodelled) ‘Hotel Lady Florence Dixie’ in Puerto Natales, Southern Chile.

The Sworn Virgins Oil & mixed media on gesso board 57cm x 39.5cm the Sworn Virgins of Northern Albania

The Sworn Virgin is believed to be the only formal, socially defined trans-masculine, trans gender and cross-dressing role in Europe. While Sworn Virgins were common historically, currently there are probably around only forty in a small region of Northern Albania and surrounding areas where traditional patriarchies still survive.

The tradition developed from The Kanun, a set of codes and laws used mostly in northern Albania & Kosovo from the 15th to the 20th century dictating a patrilineal and patrilocal family structure by which women were treated as property and had none of the freedoms or rights extended to men. Often forced into arranged marriages, they were also prohibited from smoking, drinking, voting, and even wearing a watch.

Most significantly they could not inherit or buy land, so if a family found itself without a male presence (blood feuds There were a number of reasons why a woman might have often decimated the male line) the only way to salvage their wanted to take the vow. Some women hoped to avoid an honor was for a woman to become the patriarch of the clan. unwanted arranged marriage (it was the only way to refuse Becoming a “Sworn Virgin” by taking a vow of chastity for life without dishonouring the Groom’s family), and others hoped elevated a woman to the status of a man, and saved the family to avoid marriage in general. Many wanted to stay in their own from destitution and disgrace. homes with their female relatives and several were recorded as saying they always felt more male than female. Typically a Sworn Virgin would cut her hair, adopt a male name and wear masculine clothing from this point onward. Now These depictions of women as “Sworn Virgins”, my own granted the full rights extended to men, the woman could somewhat romanticised versions of the appearance of women take on male work, act as the head of a household, sit and talk electing to lead the lives of their male counterparts, where in socially with men and enjoy all the other freedoms the position part inspired by the wonderful work of photographer Jill Peters, of the patriarch afforded. www.jillpetersphotography.com/swornvirgins.html The Delegates I The Delegates II Oil & mixed media on gesso board Oil & mixed media on gesso board 64cm x 61cm 64cm x 61cm Emily “Mickey” Hahn (1905 - 1997) Oil & mixed media on gesso board 50cm x 40cm

Emily Hahn was an American journalist and author. Considered prominent Shanghai figures, such as the wealthy Sir Victor an early feminist and called “a forgotten American literary Sassoon, the Soong Sisters and the Chinese poet, Sinmay Zau, treasure” by The New Yorker magazine, she was the author of and was in the habit of taking her pet gibbon, Mr. Mills, with 54 books and more than 200 articles and short stories. her to dinner parties, dressed in a diaper and a small dinner jacket. Initially enrolled in a general arts program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, she changed her course of study to Zau introduced her to the practice of smoking opium, to which mining engineering after being prevented from enrolling in a she became addicted. She later wrote, “Though I had always chemistry class as a female. in 1926 she was the first woman wanted to be an opium addict, I can’t claim that as the reason I to receive a degree in Mining Engineering at the University of went to .” Wisconsin–Madison. After moving to Hong Kong, she began an affair with Charles In 1924, prior to graduating she traveled 2,400 miles across Boxer, the local head of British army intelligence.According the United States in a Model T-Ford dressed as a man with her to a December 1944 Time article, Hahn “decided that she friend, Dorothy Raper. During her drive across New Mexico, she needed the steadying influence of a baby, but doubted if she wrote about her travel experiences to her brother-in-law, who, could have one. ‘Nonsense!’ said the unhappily-married Major unbeknownst to her, forwarded the letters to The New Yorker. Charles Boxer, ‘I’ll let you have one!’ Carola Militia Boxer was This jump-started her early career as a writer. Hahn wrote for born in Hong Kong on October 17, 1941”. When the Japanese The New Yorker from 1929 to 1996. marched into Hong Kong Boxer was imprisoned in a POW camp, and Hahn was brought in for questioning. “Why?” Her novels in the 20th century played a significant role in screamed the Japanese Chief of Gendarmes, “why ... you have opening up Asia and Africa to the west. Her extensive travels baby with Major Boxer?” “Because I’m a bad girl,” she quipped. throughout her life and her love of animals influenced much of her writing. After living in Florence and London in the mid- In 1978 she published Look Who’s Talking, which dealt with the 1920s, she traveled to the Belgian Congo, where she worked controversial subject of animal-human communication; this for the Red Cross, and lived with a pygmy tribe for two years, was her personal favorite among her non-fiction books. She before crossing Central Africa alone on foot. wrote her last book, Eve and the Apes, in 1988 when she was in her eighties. In 1935 she traveled to China. Her years in Shanghai, (1935 to the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong in 1941) were the most tumultuous of her life. There she became involved with

Yoshiko Kawashima 1907 - 1948 Oil & mixed media on gesso board 34.5cm x 30cm

Yoshiko Kawashima was a Chinese princess, the 14th daughter Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing dynasty, regarded Yoshiko of Shanqi, a Manchu prince of the Qing dynasty. She was raised as a member of the imperial family and welcomed her into in Japan and served as a spy for the Japanese Kwantung Army his household. After Puyi became Emperor of Manchukuo, and puppet state of Manchukuo during the Second Sino- Kawashima continued to play various roles and, for a time, Japanese War. was the mistress of Tada Hayao, the chief military advisor to Puyi. She formed an independent counter insurgency cavalry In 1911 the Xinhai Revolution overthrew the Qing dynasty force in 1932 made up of 3,000-5,000 former bandits to hunt and Yoshiko was given up for adoption at the age of eight down anti-Japanese guerilla bands during the Pacification of to Kawashima Naniwa, a Japanese espionage agent and Manchukuo, and was hailed in the Japanese newspapers as the mercenary adventurer. She was raised and educated in the Joan of Arc of Manchukuo. Kawashima family house in Matsumoto, Japan. As a teenage girl, she was raped by her stepfather’s father and later had an However, as she became an increasingly well-known and affair with her stepfather himself. She was sent to school in popular figure in Manchukuo, making appearances on radio Tokyo for an education that included judo and fencing and then broadcasts and even issuing a record of her songs, her lived a bohemian lifestyle for some years in Tokyo with a series usefulness as an intelligence asset diminished. This created of rich lovers, both men and women. issues with the Kwantung Army, added to which her value as a propaganda symbol was compromised by her increasingly In 1927, Kawashima married Ganjuurjab, the son of Inner critical tone against the Japanese military’s policies, and she Mongolian Army general Jengjuurjab, but the marriage ended gradually faded from public sight. in divorce after only two years, and Kawashima moved to Shanghai. While there, she met Japanese military attaché and After the end of the war, on 11 November 1945, a news agency intelligence officer Tanaka Ryukichi, who utilised her contacts reported that “a long sought-for beauty in male costume was with the Manchu and Mongol nobility to expand his network. arrested in by Chinese counter-intelligence officers.” She was held in prison for two and a half years, and was the After Tanaka was recalled to Japan, Kawashima continued subject of a lengthy trial. One defence was to plead that as a to serve as a spy. She undertook undercover missions in naturalised Japanese citizen she was not a traitor but rather a Manchuria, often disguised as a man, and was considered prisoner of war. This was not recognised, however, and she was strikingly attractive. She was said to have a dominating sentenced to death as a traitor. Her last request, for a private personality, half tom-boy and half heroine, coupled with a execution, was not granted. Instead she was publicly executed passion for cross-dressing. by a gunshot to the back of the head on March 25, 1948.

Shi Pei Pu 1938 - 2009 Oil & mixed media on gesso board 34.5cm x 30cm

Shi Pei Pu was a singer from Beijing. He became Eventually, in 1982, Boursicot managed to arrange visas a spy who obtained secrets during a 20-year-long sexual affair so Shi and his adopted son could come to live in Paris. in which he convinced , an employee in the Almost immediately, however, agents of the Direction de French Embassy, that he was a woman. la Surveillance du Territoire discovered that Boursicot and Shi were living together, and in the summer of 1983 they Shi grew up in the southwestern province of , where questioned both men. Unimpressed by Shi’s insistence that he learned French and attended the University of , he was in fact a woman, a French judge ordered a thorough graduating with a literature degree. By 17, Shi was an actor/ medical examination. Upon hearing the results via the radio in singer who had achieved some recognition. his remand cell, Boursicot, finally disabused of the illusion Shi was female, attempted to cut his throat with a razor blade. Bernard Boursicot, an accountant at the French Embassy in Beijing first met Shi, dressed as a man, at a Christmas party They were each sentenced to six years in prison in 1986, but in December 1964. Shi told Boursicot that he was “a female were both pardoned in 1987 having served only a fraction Beijing opera singer who had been forced to live as a man of that time over what was described as a “very silly” and to satisfy his father’s wish to have a son”. The two quickly unimportant case. developed a sexual relationship maintained in darkness in which Boursicot was convinced that he was with a woman. After his pardon, Shi remained in Paris, performing as an opera This deception was made plausible by the fact that Boursicot singer. He and Boursicot spoke occasionally, but were no longer had only previously had sexual relations with fellow male friends. Reluctant to talk of the relationship with Boursicot, he students in school. stated that he “used to fascinate both men and women” and that “What I was and what they were didn’t matter”... “I never In 1965, Shi claimed to be pregnant by Boursicot, and that told Bernard I was a woman,” Shi later claimed. “I only let it be subsequently a baby boy called Shi Du Du (who had in fact understood that I could be a woman.”... “I thought France was a been bought from a doctor in China) was their biological son. democratic country. Is it important if I am a man or a woman?” Over the next decade, they continued their on-again off-again affair as Bernard moved from posting to posting in Southeast Shi died in 2009, having maintained he still loved Boursicot Asia. According to Boursicot, he began passing documents to to the end. Boursicot, on hearing the news was less moved Shi when the Chinese made it difficult for however, saying only “He did so many things against me that him to see ‘her’ and a member of the Chinese secret service he had no pity for, I think it is stupid to play another game now offered him access to Shi in exchange for government papers. and say I am sad. The plate is clean now. I am free.”

About the Artist

Kate Milsom studied Fine Art at Oxford Brookes University and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She worked as a designer at Raymond Loewy International and was a Course Tutor at Lambeth College before leaving London in the mid 1990’s.

Spending the next ten years in a ‘Gormenghast’ of a castle on the Welsh borders, and lecturing for a time at The University of Worcester, she was encouraged to pursue her painting career by formidable gallery owner and art advocate the late Elizabeth Organ. A subsequent self-imposed period of exile in Venice to concentrate on her own work developed her now distinctive style of ‘antique surrealism’.

Evident in Kate’s paintings is her experience in both art restoration and book-binding which cultivated a reverence for authentic techniques and materials. These are employed in elaborate mixed media pieces where symbolic references abound, seamlessly blending painted and collaged elements into what she describes as “intricate scenes of social malfunction”.

Represented by The Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff